Three Carnegie Mellon Alumni
Named Fulbright Scholars

Scholarships Fund Research and Creative Projects in Switzerland, India and Finland

PITTSBURGH—The U.S. Student Fulbright Program has named three recent Carnegie Mellon University graduates 2009 Fulbright Scholars.

"The Fulbright is a highly competitive, prestigious award," said Stephanie Wallach, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education. "It is a particularly good match with our Carnegie Mellon students, because it supports candidates with diverse discipline interests, ranging from the arts and humanities to the sciences."

The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students to undertake international graduate study, advanced research and English teaching assistantships worldwide.

Gregory Newby, who received a bachelor's degree in biological sciences in 2009, will conduct research at the Biochemistry Institute of the University of Zurich in Switzerland. He will be working in the laboratory of Professor Andreas Plückthun to create a molecular, fluorescent sensor to monitor protein modifications made inside living cells. Newby said information from this sensor "would help us to find differences in the proteins that are present in normal human cells versus cancerous or infected cells, and may provide new targets for therapy."

Ally Reeves, a 2008 graduate of Carnegie Mellon's Master of Fine Arts program, will conduct research and create installation art in Mumbai, India, in collaboration with Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research (PUKAR), an initiative that contributes to global debate about urbanization and globalization. Her work will examine the visual representation of street vendors in popular media from the 19th century to today.

"The timing for this body of research and creation is important," Reeves said. "Between now and 2020, the restructuring of Mumbai as part of the city's Vision 2020 endeavor to turn Mumbai into a 'world-class city' will clear streets of vendors, construct uniform vending stalls and create standards for how street hawkers conduct business. This will undoubtedly change the way street hawkers live and work in Mumbai, potentially having affects that will ripple through all of India."

Julia Stein, a 2008 graduate of Carnegie Mellon's Bachelor of Humanities and Arts program, will pursue several artistic endeavors in Helsinki, Finland. She will enroll in the Master of Arts Degree Programme in Live Art and Performance Studies at Theatre Academy Helsinki.

Stein also plans to serve as an art therapist's assistant and produce a film in collaboration with several Finnish artists. "I will be creating a series of site-specific performances and performances in fabricated environments derived from comics that, filmed, will create a narrative about a Finnish woman's inner and exterior worlds," she said.

For more information about these scholarship recipients, visit Carnegie Mellon's Fellowships and Scholarships Office Web site at www.cmu.edu/fso.